There’s always been a thin line between the definition of a shrewd business policy and an unethical policy.

It’s shrewd business from his perspective if a car salesman doesn’t disclose a problem with the car that he knows exists. Billions of dollars in derivatives were sold: it was a shrewd financial product. Was it unethical that most derivative sellers didn’t explain what customers really were buying? In many cases the sellers didn’t know themselves what they were selling.

Whenever I hear of a real case of marketing, it inspires me. I want to tell everyone who thinks marketing is just a synonym for advertising and promotion.

Television network CNN ranked 23rd last year in advertising revenue among basic cable networks. Spending $379 million dollars placed it behind networks such as Syfy and Bravo. It turns out that most people tune into CNN only in the case of big news events.

You wonder why every car dealer TV ad is followed by an ambulance-chasing lawyer ad … is followed by a car dealer ad … is followed by an ambulance-chasing lawyer ad … is followed by . . . you get the point.

Business categories become commodities when consumers no longer identify a meaningful difference between brands. When that happens, the only difference a brand can create is in advertising. Better advertising than others, or, as in most cases, more advertising.

Just about the time I thought Secretary’s Day had become an established retail selling season, somebody convinced everybody else that to call someone a secretary is demeaning.

I can’t quite understand that. In my career I had three terrific secretaries and the opportunity to know dozens of great secretaries in other companies. Then one day it wasn’t Secretary’s Day any more.

But Johnson’s only the face of the disaster. And nobody has mentioned Penney’s board of directors.

The real culprit is a guy named William Ackman and the rest of Penney’s board of directors. Ackman manages a hedge-fund that is Penney’s largest shareholder. It was Ackman who led the board to coax Johnson away from Apple.

Just because somebody tells you that a certain business category is a dying business doesn’t mean it’s gonna die today or tomorrow. People were still making money on Blockbuster stores a decade after the announcement of their demise.

Business categories do, indeed, die. Almost always because of advances in science. Nobody’s making steamships any more.

But some categories that start shrinking aren’t necessarily dying. They’re just getting smaller.